The invention relates to a cytometer unit with a receptacle for an insertable, rotatable and preferably disk-shaped sample carrier, wherein a rotation unit which can be coupled to an inserted sample carrier, and with which the sample carrier inserted into the receptacle is rotatable, is arranged in the receptacle, and wherein an optical path for carrying out a cytometric measurement on a cytometer channel of the inserted sample carrier is formed in the receptacle.
Cytometer units of this kind are known and are used to carry out cytometric tests in semi-automated or fully automated methods. The disk-shaped sample carrier can in this case be designed as a disposable article, as a result of which it is possible to dispense with complicated cleaning steps prior to carrying out the test method again.
It has been found that the measurement accuracy of the cytometric test method may be sensitive to and depend on the optical path being precisely oriented with respect to the cytometer channel. The optical path often has a non-uniform cross section along its course, and it is particularly desirable to bring the cytometer channel into a focusing portion of the optical path.
The invention further relates to a cytometry method in which, for a cytometric measurement, a cytometer channel formed in a sample carrier and containing a sample to be tested is brought into an optical path.
The invention moreover relates to a rotatable and preferably disk-shaped sample carrier with a cytometer channel and with a coupling site for a rotation unit.
The invention relates finally to a use of a rotatable and preferably disk-shaped sample carrier, in particular as described above, with a preferably radially oriented cytometer channel and with a coupling site for a rotation unit.